Dark Heart
by bananagoddess
Summary: Instead of losing one of your friends, why not lose both? Kairi experiences hard difficulties as she tries to get over the loss of her dearly beloved. But when the opportunity comes, will she give a second thought to the deal?
1. 01: Journey

whee heeeeee!! Hello! This be my first story that I've written in a while 6 months, to be exact Oo So yeah, originally, this is suppose to be a fan-based comic I'm working on BUT...turns out I ended up writing it, too ; aw, well. Hope you enjoy!

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_If only I was strong enough, I could've saved you. You could've been safe in my arms. Instead, I ended up losing the two most special people to me._

"Kairi...? Kairi...!!"

The sounds of his voice echoing throughout the darkness made the red-headed girl known as Kairi shiver with fear. Her eyes meeting the boy's, and her voice quivering. She wanted to save him, not lose him. "Sora!! Don't go!"

Smiling faintly, Sora reached his hands and extended his fingers towards Kairi's direction. "Kairi...I'll come back. I promise. Just wait for me..."

Fear striking back at Kairi, she only cringed down on the rock's surface, her hands hiding herself away from the boy drifting away. Her only sign of good-bye to Sora was a trail of crystal tears floating down to him. And as the platform begins to drift apart, the lonely girl said to herself:

_What have I done...?_

----

The sun still shines down on the pale beach shores of Destiny Island even after three years of the incident. Everyone acts as though nothing happened. Especially three mischievous children.

"OW!! Dammit Wakka, what'd you do that for?!"

"Gee, s-o-o-r-r-r-y!! It's not my fault you get in the ball's way!"

"...okay...then you don't mind if my sword gets in the way?!"

"Hey, what are you...?! OUCH!! Dammit, you'll pay for that!!"

The two hooligan boys began to run around the beach, each constantly hitting one another with their weapon of choice. Five minutes later, the boys collapsed from exhaustion, each panting constantly. Wakka, with his ball clutched closely to him, looked over to his companion. "Phew...well there was something to pass the time, eh Tidus?"

Tidus sat straight up, fiddling with his wooden sword. "Yeah...'cept we don't have anything to do now..." That's when Tidus was suddenly knocked over by several fish, one ending up in his mouth. "Arrr!!! Wha dah hull??" Over the pile of fish Tidus spotted a very angry looking little girl, tightly clutching her jump rope.

Wakka suddenly stood up straight, saluting off the girl. "Er...uh...good afternoon, Miss Selphie! Um...this...what we were doing...it's not what it looks like...heh..." he began to sweat nervously as the girl slowly walked in front of him. Before he could say anything else, she slapped a fish across Wakka's face, and then tightened her jump rope harder.

"THIS is what I spent most of MY morning doing!! And what were YOU two doing?! Goofing off, I assume..." both boys looked at her with a guilty smile. She continued on. "WELL...since I've been fishing, I guess I'll take my break now. But as for YOU two..." Selphie's blaming finger pointed over to a pile of wood and two axes. "...we need kindling. I assume there are no objections...?"

Both boys quickly stumbled over to the pile and began working immediately. Selphie only sighed and began to take her break by walking on the shores of the beach. Before she could even start, however, she saw a girl all by herself walking towards their secret place. Quickly, Selphie ran over to her. "Kairi! Hey, Kairi!"

She stopped to turn around and face Selphie with a smile. "Oh, Selphie...did you catch any fish this morning?"

Selphie only grinned to herself. "Heh...sure did! Just check out the pile by those two hooligans..." she triumphantly thrusted her thumb over to Wakka and Tidus, who are already whacking away wood like crazy folk. She turned back to Kairi, still grinning, until she noticed Kairi holding something in her hands..." ...Papaya fruit...? Kairi, are you gonna...?"

Kairi began to interrupt her, blushing slightly as she did. "No...! No! It's not what you think! I...just need some quiet time is all!!" Slowly she began to walk towards the secret entrance. She turned back to Selphie. "I'll be back. Just let me know when it gets dark, kay?" And with another soft smile, she entered through the secret passage.

Selphie heaved a depressing sigh. "...she's still not over it. Poor Kairi..." with too much on her mind, she turned and walked towards her hard working boys, with sympathy for the girl with the broken smile still lingering in her mind...

Light beamed down from several small cracks, which made the cave-like walls less menacing. Kairi only continued on walking down the path until she reached a medium sized room with various roots of trees sticking out from the sides. To her left was plenty of soft boulders and to the right was a rock wall, covered in numerous white sketches. Kairi slowly walked to the right of her, scanning through many of the drawings. It was then she stopped in front of one of her favorite sketches there.

There were two people: a boy's head and a girl's head. The boy was smiling with his spiky hair misplaced on his head. He was handing over to the girl a star shaped fruit, as the girl with straight short hair did the same. Kairi only stared at the picture for a few short minutes, then placed the Papaya fruit down below the drawing. She continued to gaze at the boy, her fingers running smoothly against his poorly drawn face.

"Heh...three years...it's been a while..." her fingers continued to stroke the face. "I wonder if you're okay...or if you're even alive..." a tiny stream of tears trickled down her face silently. "...Sora...I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I've done..." her fingers slowly removed themselves as she gently placed her forehead to his. "...I just wish...I could do something to bring you...and Riku...back..."

"baaaaacccccckkkkkkk...Rrrriiiiiikkkkkuuuuuu...Sssooooooorrrraaaaaaaa..." a silent hiss said, echoing through the room as well as Kairi's ears.

Kairi's head suddenly jerked up. "wha-? Who's there?" there was no answer but she slowly began to arise to her feet, still searching for the voice. "What do you want? Why are you here?"

The hissing began to calm itself down. "Rrrikkuu...Ssorrra...I brrriinnggg baaaccckk..."

Suddenly, her voice began to quiver. "Wh-...what? How can...? ...you can do that?"

Hisses stopped abruptly and began to talk in a smooth, calm voice. "But of course, my scrumptious light. For you, happiness...or love, in this case...is only an ocean's walk away..." a shadowy hand waved over to behind Kairi. As she glanced around, she could no longer see the cave's pathway. Instead, a silky white beach along with a sparkling blue ocean was replaced. Kairi's eyes could only look at the sudden changes in the environment.

"What...do I do...?" she said, now hypnotized by the ocean's light. The shadow hand emerged now as a tall, dark hooded figure, its hand resting upon Kairi's cold shoulder.

"They call for you...you can't hear it yet, but you will...just walk across the ocean...the worlds in which you so dear longed to see are open again. They're screaming for you, Princess of Light. Go to them..." the shadow gently pushed Kairi into the water. To her surprise, she didn't go down. Not even a ripple was created.

She slowly stood up and looked back at the shadow, hopefully to ask more questions. But before she could, it quickly disintegrated into the beach's shore, turning the sand a tainted violet as it did. Kairi paid no attention to the sand, much less the water. She began to stride down the ocean's surface, only keeping one thing in her mind. "Please...let it be true...let me see you again, Riku...Sora..."


	2. 02: Change

Phew! Well...I'm happy to try and write this chapter up!! :D but, yes...anywho, I hope you enjoy this chapter of Dark Heart!!

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If there was a term for an everlasting road, then our Kairi would know the exact feeling. It seemed like only hours when she was told that she could be reunited with her friends. Whether the mysterious savior was being truthful or not...she didn't care. She only had one thing on her mind:

"Dear god...please let them be all right..."

The sky all around her suddenly streaked to darkness, not leaving a single ray of light open. Kairi looked up and heaved a deep sigh to herself. "mmm...this is going to make everything even harder..." Her eyes scanned throughout the sky as stars began to appear one by one. In no time at all, the stars all shined at the same time, creating a field of twinkling lights.

Kairi could only look up at the sky with amazement, until she was stopped abruptly. She looked down to see that the path was no longer ahead of her. All that remained was a shining green platform, hidden under her feet. A deep heavy sigh took place at that moment. "Wonderful...now how am I going to get to them?" she kneeled down to keep herself warm from the cold night.

There were the sounds of the night all around her: crickets chirped softly, water skippers softly skidded across the waters, the cold breeze gently swaying...but Kairi choose to ignore all the wonderful noises. She only talked to herself to keep everything from distracting her thinking. "When the three of us get back together, we should make a vow..." her index finger extended towards the water, gently circulating around an invisible ball. "...we should all promise that we'll always be together...and that nothing will come between us..." the circulating stopped as she brought her hand back to her. Now, she extended her neck over so that she could see her own reflection, her own lips so that she could believe what she had just said. "...nothing..."

Soon after a long hard look, Kairi's reflection began to disappear behind a layer of tan like bricks. Surprised, Kairi stood up suddenly, watching over her shoulders as the water and platform below her began to transform into a walkway of bricks. The sky suddenly formed into an assortment of buildings, but not so many. Even the crickets and water skippers began to slowly morph into people. After spinning around so many times, Kairi was now gazing at a small town she was unknown with.

Releasing herself from shock, Kairi shook her head and began to look at the people around her. Everyone was calm as if nothing happened. Kairi couldn't believe it, so she decided to ask a local near her. She spotted a little boy running around with his toy, so she picked him. A gentle tap on the shoulder and the boy instantly stood up straight and looked up at Kairi.

"Excuse me, but do you happen to know where we are?" she said sweetly with a smile of pure heaven.

The little boy smiled back, and politely answered. "This is the first part of Traverse Town, ma'am. I know this place like the back of my hand!"

Kairi continued to smile at the little boy as she gently pat the boy on the shoulder. "Thank you so much. Sorry for interrupting your fun."

"No need to apologize, ma'am!" And with that, the boy continued to run around in a childish manner. After a short smile, Kairi continued to gaze around the dim- litted town. With a short pause for thinking, she decided to investigate around.

There were an assortment of people she asked in the first area: people in shops, people outside, people calmly strolling the dim lights of the town, even little white creatures with antennas popping out of their heads. And each and everyone of them, she asked the same question: "Have you seen two boys, one with silver hair and the other with brown, spiky hair?"

Kairi decided to rest after many disappointments of no's and the shaking of heads. She heaved another deep sigh as she sat down on a pair of stairs. She watched dull-fully at the people strolling along the streets. Resting her hand to her face, she began to talk silently to herself. "Oh Riku, Sora, I'll find you. One way or another..."

"Mistress seems to have closed mind, no no?" a voice hissed in the air. Kairi stood upright instantly, looking for the source of the voice. Worried eyes scanned through the town. To her surprise, however, the people began to run and scream instead of ignore. Caught in the confusion, Kairi grabbed a man running past her.

"What's going on? Did you hear the voice?" The man gently shook her off before he yelled out his answer.

"There's a Heartless coming! Run while you still can!" Before he even reached the crowd, he disappeared into thin air. Soon afterwards, everyone began to disappear in a small puff of smoke. Soon the whole town was empty with no one except Kairi. Slightly trembling, Kairi began to back up at the sound of hooves galloping closer to her.

"Mistress lost in closed mind of death, yes yes..." Kairi stopped abruptly at the sound of the voice, which was now closer than ever. Her head suddenly jerked back as she caught a glimpse of the Heartless behind her.

The Heartless was but a black centaur, its face covered by a half mask and a giant horn opposite of the mask. A strap loosely hung around the torso along with a shoulder guard to the left. Its hooves covered in spikes gently padded the brick walkway while its amphibious tail swayed violently in the air. Staring at Kairi intensely through its hard yellow eyes, the Heartless calmly walked towards the other flight of stairs. It looked back at Kairi again. "Mistress who seeks Heartless boy and boy of Light, come. Follow Sagitraus."

Before any second thoughts could concur, Sagitraus had all ready begun to gallop ahead. Kairi instantly chased after it, following Sagitraus until they reached a pair of giant doors. Without pausing, the Heartless galloped through the door without opening it. After its tail disappeared, the door looked as though nothing happened. Kairi paused, but also was preparing. With one deep breath, Kairi began to run towards and through the door. Soon afterwards, the door was again looking quite normal.

And now there was no one currently in the first part of Traverse Town.

--

Well! Hopefully, part three will come up. This took a while to do as I had quite a writer's block (heh heh...). Anywho, I don't know how many chapters there will be, but I'm still continuing! Hope you enjoyed this segment!


	3. 03: Surrender

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Mists of darkness shrouded throughout the floors and walls of a deserted castle. Eerie winds cut through the cold stones. For a while, there was only the sound of ravens coldly raving out their calls. But now, along with quiet footsteps, there was gentle clacking of hooves upon the floor. Emerging from the mists, a Sagitraus Heartless calmly strutted forward with Kairi following right behind. Watching all about her, Kairi began to shiver violently, her breath visible right before her. She looked up at Sagitraus, who didn't seem to be affected by the freezing point of the room.

The Heartless stopped abruptly. Not paying attention, Kairi walked right into it, almost falling down. Trying to keep herself warm, she looked up at Sagitraus, who didn't even flinch one bit. Just as she was about to question the Heartless, it slowly rose its claws over to an empty space in the middle of the mist. For one minute, Kairi actually thought that the creature was obviously crazy, but soon afterwards, she gasped silently at the sudden change.

Particles of the dark mist slowly began to form into two figures: one in a black cloak, the other in a fanciful red garment with many assortments of accessories. A dim light shined down on the two as they engaged in conversation.

"Sire, it would seem our plan to release the Heartless was a success. They have all ready begun to wreck havoc just like before." The man in the dark cloak bowed lowly before the other figure. But all it did was heave a deep grunt beneath its clothing.

"…but you seem to be forgetting, my dear boy, about the Key Bearer. He defeated even our strongest forces last time, I'm positive he can do it yet again."

The hooded figure lifted its head in shock. "Sire! You can't think such thoughts! Surely, our forces are stronger than before."

Heaving silent sighs, the red figure cocked its head slightly. "Do you have any proof of this? Don't forget, the Key Bearer is not our only enemy."

"You mean…sire, do thou speak of…"

"Indeed. I speak of the one who gave the Key in the first place. It would appear that not only has he aided the Key Bearer throughout the battles, he is now a part of it. This places a heavy dent in our army."

There was a heavy silence between the two. Still aside, Sagitraus and Kairi stood silently, both keeping to themselves. Kairi, now confused more than ever, was about to ask the Heartless what was going on. But before she could, the Heartless's dark claw covered her mouth, signaling her to stay silent.

After the long silence, the black figure stood up. "…perhaps it may. I'm sorry for correcting you." Before the red figure could say anything, the black figure slowly raised its hands to its hood. "But before you dismiss me, I'd like to point out a major weakness in the Key Bearer." Now caught with interest, the red figure was now being closely attentive. Before talking again, the black figure removed its hood from its face.

The figure was no more but a man, with spiked red hair and marks under his eyes. His eyes were as cold as steel and emotion-less like a doll. He continued with his conversation. "It would seem that during the finale of the last battle, the Key Bearer was separated by his companions."

Still close in attention, the red figure began to jump in. "Does thou speak of his fighting companions?"

Slowly shaking his head, the man continued. "No, they are still with him. I speak of his two human friends. Remember? There was the boy who joined our side, and then there was that young lady, whose heart was a vital key to our project."

Nodding slightly, the other stroked its chin in agreement. The man still continued. "It would seem that while one was pulled to the other side, the other was separated from the Key Bearer, ending up back originally where she came from." A small chuckle escaped from the man's mouth. "I suspect that the Key Bearer suffers from the disconnection of his dear companions. Sooner or later, I'm sure he'll go crazy, killing everything in his path. A few Heartless, his companions…eventually, he'll even bring himself down."

Instead of keeping silently, the red figure chuckled maniacally. "Ha ha! Humans are so pathetic. That's why they are a main course for the Heartless! Ho ho! I'll trust you on this, you've never been wrong for me…" Striding ploddingly, the red figure placed a claw on the man's shoulder.

Silence struck again between the two. Kairi started to remember about the incident where Sora had left her. Tired of standing, Sagitraus began to walk past the two figures. After some time, Kairi noticed its disappearance so she quickly followed behind it. As Sagitraus went through yet another opened portal, Kairi could hear the last bit of their conversation.

"You are dismissed…Axel."

And once again, the room was covered in a dark mist with no light to guide it.

--

Through a thick layer of darkness, the Heartless and Kairi emerged again, only to appear in nothing but darkness. Not as cold as before, but the appearance of an eerie room made Kairi shiver slightly. The last conversation still had thoughts buzzing around Kairi's mind. There were many things she couldn't get out. But only one stood out beyond the rest.

"…Key Bearer…"

Thoughts of Sora ran through her mind as she thought of this. Clenching her hands to her head, she began to tell herself to forget. But before she could even do that, Sagitraus sensed something. Growling violently, the Heartless began to charge into the darkness.

"Wait, where are you…?" Kairi yelled out to it, trying to stop it. Right before her eyes, the centaur Heartless was slashed in half by a blazing red light. The Heartless soon after ward dissolved into nothing. A sudden chill ran through Kairi's body. Soon, thousands of yellow eyes ran towards Kairi, yelping in pain. She wanted to run away, but her legs stayed frozen in fear. A couple of yellow eyes jumped straight after her, but before they could even touch her face, all traces of them were destroyed with yet another red light.

Kairi now had the courage to turn around and run away. She didn't know what was causing this killing spree, but she knew that she wanted to run away from it all. Just as she was about to run, a familiar voice weakly rang through her ears.

"Kairi…? Kairi, is that you? Please say it is…!"

Her head slowly turned around. As soon as she caught a glimpse, she was facing a boy covered in blood and torn pieces of his black and blue clothing. His silver head slowly raised up to Kairi's eye-level, as a pair of turquoise eyes could be seen.

Kairi was now fully paralyzed with fear. Her mouth slowly formed one word as she put her hand towards the boy. "…R-Riku…?"

Riku smiled with satisfaction, then collapsed on the floor, coughing up blood as he did. Shocked, Kairi crawled over to Riku, lifting him up to her eye level. "Riku? Wh-what happened?"

"…Kairi…oh god, how I missed you…" Riku continued to hack up blood, holding his chest tightly within his hand.

"Riku, please tell me what happened!" Tears now streamed down her cheeks, even though she tried to fight them back. Riku instantly noticed this. Slowly placing his hand to her face, he signaled her to silence.

"Kairi…you can't cry for me…I forbid it…" smiling and coughing, Riku continued on without letting Kairi speak. "I'm not going to make it, so before I go…I just wanted to say…that I'm sorry." Kairi gasped slightly as she now saw tears gently rolling down his cheeks. "I'm…so sorry…not only did I not save you…I hurt you in so many ways. So please…don't forgive me…" His eyes grew duller by the minute and his hand slowly crawled away from her face. "…I'm so sorry…" with that, Riku's eyes closed and his hands were now lifeless. Kairi just sat there, shocked at the sight of her lifeless friend.

Before anything could happen, Riku's body was suddenly slashed and disintegrated by another red light. Crawling away from the spot, Kairi was now violently shaking. She could now here footsteps getting closer to her. Not only that, but she could now see the form of the footsteps. Her eyes were now wide in shock and her breaths were stopped abruptly.

The figure was yet another young boy in various amounts of dark clothing materials. To the side he carried a huge weapon in the shape of a key, black blood spilling off from the edges. Kairi cowered in the presence of the boy, as his dull, white eyes looked down at her. Managing to get a short breath in, Kairi slowly stuttered the words she didn't want to hear.

"…Sora?"

Sora did nothing but continue to stare down at Kairi through his cold eyes. Kairi steadily gathered her courage to face him. "Sora…please tell me you didn't just kill Riku…"

His lifeless eyes turned away from Kairi's as he raised his Keyblade over his head. Kairi was once again stuck in fear, afraid of what he was about to do next. "S-sora…? What are you going to do…?" After a long silence, Sora's eyes were visible again, only this time, a small grin as now on his face. Swinging his Keyblade towards Kairi, she guarded herself uselessly against the sudden blow of death…

--

"AH!"

A boy arose from his slumber, with eyes of fear struck on him. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he was breathing heavily. Two other figures woke up next to him.

"ACK! What? Is it another Heartless?"

"Gwarsh, I hope not. I was just havin' another nice dream…"

The two figures looked towards the boy's direction. One of them, losing their temper, began to spurt out. "Sora! Dang it! What'd you wake us up for?"

Sora whipped his head over to the hot-blooded duck. "Huh…? Oh, sorry guys, did I wake you up?"

The duck now totally lost it. "WHAT! You woke us up for nothing? Bwaa!" Throwing a fit, the other figure decided to calm him down.

"Now Donald, Sora must've had a bad dream, Hyuck." Sora's other companion turned to him. "Isn't that right…?"

Sora innocently grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, yeah…nothing to get worked up about. Sorry for waking you up Goofy, Donald."

Donald gave off an angry 'humph' as he snuggled himself back to sleep. Goofy decided to do the same thing. "Well, good night…again." Within seconds, the two were fast asleep yet again. Smiling once at his companions, Sora decided to try and go back to sleep, too.

But after his dream, worry-ness struck his face. His hand slowly extended towards the starry sky as he carefully gazed the background around his hand.

"Kairi…I miss you so much. But…" Sora brought his hand closer to him as he reversed his hand so that he could stare at his palm. "…I'm afraid the next time we meet, you might not recognize me…" Sora heaved a deep sigh as he brought his hand back to him. Closing himself around his blankets, he quickly fell asleep.

…that is, after a few shedding of tears.

--

Geesuz, THIS finally got done…sorry about the wait (although who's waiting?) but I've had no inspiration to write lately…and…yes .

Although I will try and write some more, I just need to find a new subject.

Until then, toodles!


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